Here's the little Nork gem that caught his attention between the front and back nine. The KN-08. It's a dandy little truck rollaroundable missile that has people in the know asking the question "If they stop blowing them up and figure out their sh#t (and they will figure out their sh#t, see NASA Project Vanguard) just how far can that little sumbitch carry a nuclear warhead?"

Remember how much fun it was back in the day to find SCUDS on trucks in Iraq and blow them up on the ground before they launched? Yeah. Good times man, good times.

What do we actually know? The current leader was carefully chosen with older siblings being passed by as unacceptable. This means that the regime is concerned with it's political survival and continuance in power. Which of course means they are not suicidal. I doubt anyone runs a country by being truly insane. Generals or leaders.

Could they become suicidal if they were to have their system unravel? Perhaps. Suicidal actions would be unlikely even then if history shows us much.

This rules out full scale invasion of the south or the use of their primitive Nukes. Although an open air ocean test might be something they would do.

One would expect them to continue to find creative and outrageous new ways to give the world the finger like they have for decades.

This behavior seems to work well for their internal politics.

Call it Tantrum diplomacy. It has allowed them to gain carrots from the world for toning down from bizarre behavior to merely poor behavior. Although this may no longer be working so well. It also lets them show each other internally how ballsy and loyal they are. It give them the ability to have an outside boogeyman to unite their peasants with. Peasant they deliberately underfeed in order to keep them weak and docile.

Basically N Korea is very predictable. Being outrageous and slightly dangerous is what they do, their MO if you will. You can almost set your clock by it.

It is true. China is blessed with many natural resources, but they have pitiful oil reserves and not much hope to find any.

Chinese geologists are pretty sharp, though. They regularly publish.

As for N Korea, Seoul is so close to the border line that N Korea already has thousands of artillery tubes aimed at each block in the city. All they have to do is say "Fire." and Seoul will be destroyed. They don't need nukes to do this.

If they do do this, even the Chinese won't back them. N Korea will be a smoking hole in the ground.

If you have any doubt that the N Korean man in the street is as batshit crazy as the leader, check out a Netflix documentary about a Doctor who was allowed in to do several hundred quick cateract surgeries. When they pulled off the bandages they were all in tears that they could now see a picture of the "Dear Leader."

Those people are totally brainwashed. If you are found with a radio you die. The N Koreans make Iran look like a boy scout troop.

For that matter, Iran would probably be a great country if they weren't overseen by the clerics. They have a pretty modern society and know what is going on in the rest of the world.

Sooner or later, the N Koreans will do something really horrible. At least with Iran, you can bet on a strategic standoff with their enemies, much like the cold war was. The relationships are already like that, anyway.